Monthly Archives: January 2015

It touches on the political climate, the group think and some other issues. The comic with a guy holding a gun to the visa is perfect too. It is real. People judge you very quick. You say you like kimchi, talk a little korean and you will be treated very differently.

I have this paranoid feeling that something bad is coming. We have massive wealth inequality that is just getting worse. I read a few quotes from Marx’s books and they talk about how capitalists buy out other capitalists and make these ever increasing companies that are able to sell things at ever cheaper prices. You see it with Wal-mart, and Amazon. Consolidation of the banking and media industries. Real wages are declining. We are losing jobs to automation. As Marx said, capitalism progresses and it replaces the workers with capital and makes them obsolete.

It is absolutely crazy that I can take, let’s say $10,000. Put it in the stock market, and a few months later have several hundred more dollars. Where did that money come from? The idea that capital makes more capital seems obviously unsustainable.

Today at work one of the other teachers said we should just get rid of school. The idea never really occurred to me. It is pretty much a jail and day care center for the kids. I think if I had kids I would want the freedom/time to home school them. You can probably teach them a lot better and make it something other than jail.

I don’t have any answers. I just think we need to look at education and capitalism from a different angle. They seem to have huge problem that nobody is interested in solving.

Making pork neck with veggies right now. From scratch pizza is planned for the weekend. My electric bill will suck but whatever.

I got propositioned a job making $3,000 a month but it is one hell of a commute and would require me dropping university. It’s a pretty unique oppurtunity and I don’t think these come often. I plan to get more information and then think about it some more. It’s only a 2 hour class in the morning so in theory I could have 3 pay checks and still be working fewer classroom hours than before. The problem is I think the position requires a car because of the commute. Something to think about. I would be teaching adults however which would be an entirely new experience.

Hyeon Mi is trying to help me set up private tutoring which is the way to make the best money I think. More on that as it evolves.

That said, this part time work is really nice. Opportunities are presenting themselves already. This would be a position I couldn’t have even considered 1-2 years ago.

Life has sort of settled down. I work from roughly 2-7 everyday. The classes are great and not stressful. The co-teachers are great. No work place hostility or passive aggressiveness. I think only being at each school 2-3 days a week has a lot to do with that.

Everything is fixed. I spent today putting together the keycaps with Korean language for my keyboard and did some memrise to study korean. Tried to cure my cast iron pot, but it just isn’t going well…everything keeps sticking.

Friday I biked to work which was great. 30 minutes by bus. 30 minutes by bike, easy choice. A bit cold but a fun and healthy way to start the day. Heard about the 170 car pile up in MI, scary stuff.

I have so much to say and so little time to say it. I’ve been busy 24/7 since I got back. I’ve leased an awesome apartment due to the help of some great friends. I shared some drinks with said friends. Me and Hyeon Mi spent a lot of time together and I feel closer than ever. We spent 5 of the last 7 days together and went shopping and picked out some things to go in my house. It feels like a newly wed couple lol. The time away from her really helped me solidify my feelings. Anyway onto the good stuff. My first year I paid 400 a month in rent. Last year 450, this year 350! And it is an even nicer place. My friend Kiyeol helped out a ton. From 10am until 7:30 at night we searched places. We found a good one for 420 a month with great location near university, and 20th floor! Great view but they didn’t want to rent to foreigner. On to next one which was really pricey…500 plus 80 maintenance fee rent. A beautiful new gym located on 2nd floor. Huge south facing windows with tons of sun light. Compact furniture that came out of the walls. The table extended from wall. The bed folds up into the wall. The place was great, decided to give it a try… and really force myself into finding more part time work. Called the landlord and…he wanted 550. 500 was already out of my price range and 550 was just too much.

So we gave up and considered getting a hotel again, but Kiyeol reminded me on Friday night getting a hotel is expensive maybe $90, just put towards rent and keep searching! So we ran to a real estate office he found, we were shown several places a pretty big one room for 450, and this one room apartment for 350. It came fully furnished, TV, queen bed, table and chairs. Great kitchen. Amazong bathroom that dries fast and has lots of room. The toliet has a bidet! Haha those things are great I highly recommend. 1-2 minute walk to bus stop. 4 minute walk to subway. I can bike to the university and my Mon/Wed/Fri job. It really is a perfect place. The downside is I had to put down a VERY large deposit, nearly all my savings. I’ve saved money and hassle by not buying too much furniture. I’m on the 12th floor with a pretty good North (I wanted south but can’t be too choosey) facing view. The kitchen has a vent and lights. There is a storage closet, and a clothing closet. It’s a brand new building and I’m the first to move in so everything is in pristine shape. The room is only 165 sq feet but everything is so space efficient I love it. This is literally my dream house until I have kids. Extra space is pointless. There is a switch on the door when I leave that turns off all the power and gas to the room. There is a eco-outlet that turns off to stop ghost power draining. Really efficient lighting and very well insulated. It’s freezing and windy outside and I’ve only turned on my heater to “bake out” the boiler so far. Pictures soon.

I’ve only allowed myself 30 minutes to write so I’ll try to cover everything. I went to immigration and will get my needed visa on the 21st. Still waiting for CRC from FBI…

My MWF school is great. Really relaxed but I think the management will change in March so we will see how it is…minimal busy work but some. My classes run from 2:40-7 an I arrive 30 minutes early. 5 hour day and within biking distance. I have some very young classes but this will be a good experience. My last school had 12 student classes and you can only stand and lecture. Here my classes are 1/4/5/8 students you can really work closely with them and since classes are only 40 minutes they stay focused much better. There are 4 other male teachers here.

The Tue/thur school is about 50 minute away…it’s a bit of a pain but the owner gave me $40 already for taxi fee. $10 a day he promised on top of the additional salary. The problem here is my first class is at 2-2:50. Then I have a 130 minute break… I need to bring some Korean study material or something to make use of my time. Then I teach a small class of 2 and a single student classes who is a very bright 3rd year highschool student. I am the only foreign teacher. The director of the school really tries to take care of me, he had an employee stay after an hour so I could take the bus home with her. I felt bad. I’ve been here 2 years, I can take a bus. They offer free lunch here too which is great.

Overall these jobs seem good. I’ll get to experience teaching much younger and older students than I am used to in a smaller classroom. Hopefully I can improve as a teacher. It’s been chilly and super windy, I am excited for spring and starting the language classes.

I heard the news about France. That’s scary stuff and you can see why nationalism is on the rise in Europe again. I hope every paper publishes those cartoons tomorrow. It would be a real shame to let the bad guys win and silence the people they want to silence.